The king's new wife turns his 11 sons into swans and his daughter Eliza into a beggar girl, then erases his children from his memory. Her brothers take her to a distant land where they will all live. Eliza must make shirts out of stinging nettles for each of her brothers without ever speaking, in order to free them from the wicked queen's spell. Meanwhile, the king of their new home sees Eliza and falls in love with her.